Turning a Blind Eye
Disclaimer: Don't own anything
Chapter Two: Blind Faith
Serena held her daughter as she walked to the living room and sat down on the sofa. Gently moving her daughter so that she was sitting on her lap, Serena brushed some of hair from her face and looked into her blue eyes.
"You want to tell me about your dream?" Serena asked.
"I was asleep and a monster came at me and you weren't there and the monster grabbed me then I woke up and aunt Lita came in and brought me out here cause I was crying and aunt Lita told me it was ok then you cam home." She explained without pause.
"Did auntie Lita take care of the monster for Rini?" Serena asked.
"Yeah." Rini smiled then yawned, "Mommy where'd you go?"
"Mommy went to dinner with a friend. But I'm home now. Do you want to go back to bed?" Serena asked, though she already knew the answer.
"No! I want to stay with you!" Rini practically yelled as she held on to Serena's arm tighter.
"Ok, you stay with me then. I'm going to get some water, do you want to come with me or stay on the sofa with auntie Lita?" Serena asked.
"I'll stay with aunt Lita. You no leaving?" Rini asked, suddenly scared.
"No, just getting something to drink. You want some milk or something?" Serena asked.
"Ok." Rini smiled, her fear gone as quick as it appeared.
"Ok, Lita you want anything?" Serena asked with a smile and shake of her head as her daughters antics.
"Naw, I'm fine." Lita said with a point to a mug on the coffee table.
"Ok, be right back. Then you can ask me all the questions that I know you're waiting to ask." Serena said with a sigh and smile as she went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water and got Rini some milk in her Sippy cup.
Serena went back into the living room, handed Rini her Sippy cup, settled her on to her lap and promptly turned on "Aladdin" for Rini to watch as she fell asleep.
"So, how did it go?" Lita asked once Rini was fully entranced by the movie.
"It went well. He's nice and smart. Attractive. Attentive. And, well, just an all around good guy." Serena answered quickly.
"Well, it's good to hear that we know some good guys. But that didn't answer my question." Lita pointed out.
"He wants to have dinner Tuesday night." Serena then said sipping her water as Lita took in the bomb that Serena dropped.
"Really!? Are you? Did you say yes?" Lita asked.
"I told him that I wasn't sure I was free and that I'd call him. Shoot, how long have I been home?" Serena asked suddenly.
"About 20 minutes, why?" Lita answered as she glanced at the clock.
"Darien wanted me to call him when I got home." Serena said as she slid Rini from her lap to the sofa to find her purse. Rini was too entranced by the jewels of the "Cave of Wonders" to notice she'd been moved.
Serena jogged to her purse that she left by the door and pulled out her phone, then found the card that Alan had given her. Quickly punching in the numbers she hit send and waited for Darien to pick up.
"Hello?" Darien's voice sounded over the phone.
"Hi, Darien, It's Serena." Serena responded quickly.
"Where do you live? I left you at the restaurant almost 45 minutes ago." Darien commented as he let out a breath.
"Sorry, I got home about 20 minutes ago. I just got," Serena looked to the sofa where she could see Rini's hair over the top cushion, "Side tracked. I got home fine and Alan walked me to my car." Serena explained.
"Ok. Good. I'm glad you got home alright. Do you know about Tuesday yet? I mean. I don't want to rush you or anything. If you don't know it's fine." Darien began to rush the last bit.
"Is the good doctor nervous?" Serena asked with a laugh, drawing Lita's attention from Rini and the movie.
"Honestly, yes. I'm afraid I just blew it because now I feel like I'm rushing you into seeing me again." Darien answered with a laugh.
"Tuesday…… Let me see" Serena said as she look to Lita and mouthed 'Yes or No?' Lita nodded her head enthusiastically, "Looks like I'm free." Serena then answered Darien.
"Really? Cool. I, uh, do you want me to pick you up? I mean I don't know where we'd go yet or what not yet." Darien answered.
"That would be great. Say 7:00?" Serena asked, not wanting to make him make all the decisions.
"Perfect. Do you want to give me your address now?" Darien asked as she heard him rustling around over the line.
"Um, actually I'm meeting Amy for lunch on Monday; I can leave it for you then if I don't see you." Serena offered.
"That would be perfect. I'll hear or see you then. Good night, Serena." Darien said, Serena could tell he was smiling as he spoke.
"See you then. Good night." Serena responded, a smile curving her lips as she hung up.
"So, Tuesday? Whatever happened to waiting a few days?" Lita asked with a smile when Serena looked back to the sofa.
"I don't know, but I'm glad he didn't wait….. Where's Rini?" Serena asked when she couldn't see the top of her head over the cushion.
"Right here, asleep." Lita said as she pointed down next to her.
Serena walked around the sofa to see Rini curled in a little ball out like a light.
"Knew she'd fall asleep." Serena whispered with a smile as she turned off the TV and picked up Rini.
Serena quietly walked through the house to Rini's room and put her down in her crib.
"I'm going to have to change that to a bed soon." Lita said softly from the door as Serena covered Rini with a blanket.
"Yeah. She's getting big." Serena whispered back as she smoothed her daughters' hair.
"You didn't tell Darien about her, did you?" Lita asked as Serena turned to leave the room.
"No, but I think I will Tuesday. I mean, he's picking me up here." Serena said as she grabbed the door knob and shut the door to Rini's room most of the way, letting a sliver of light into the room.
"Tuesday's Danny's day with Rini. Darien probably won't see her." Lita pointed out.
"What? Are you saying he doesn't like children? Or are you implying that I not tell him?" Serena asked, turning to look her friend in the eye.
"I'm not saying any of those things. Darien loves children. As for telling him, I think it would be a good thing to be up front about everything I'm just saying that you may not want to tell him right when he picks you up, that's all." Lita replied quickly.
"Well I knew that." Serena rolled her eyes at Lita.
"Just checking. So, you like him, right?" Lita asked.
"Yeah, I do. I'm just hoping he likes me enough to accept her." Serena said as she glanced back to Rini's room.
"I hope so too, Sere. I really do. You want to watch the new NCIS with me? I have it DVR'd" Lita asked as they made their way back to the living room.
"Sure, I don't want tonight to end just yet." Serena said with a smile as she sat down on the sofa, a smile on her face.
"Somehow I knew that." Lita smiled at Serena as she turned the TV on and began her show.
1111
The weekend seemed to pass too quickly for Serena, too soon it was done and she was back to the daily grind at the office, dropping and picking Rini up at the babysitters or daycare, and just living life. Serena had just dropped Rini off at the daycare center and went to work and was not surprised to find a stack of files on her desk that needed to be filed and a list of files that needed to be pulled for the meetings either later that day or the next. Serena put her purse in her desk drawer, put on her headset and sat down to start up her computer and respond to client e-mails that had come in during the weekend.
"Serena, is that you?" A voice asked from behind the office door.
"Yes Mr. Douglass." Serena answered as she turned to the opening door.
"A. how many times do I have to tell you to call me Jake, you've worked here for forever and we've known each other for longer. B. I thought I gave you today off." Jake said from his office door.
"Well, to answer A, I thought you wanted professionalism in the office. Isn't that what you yelled at Raye about on Friday? And B, well, I'll take next Monday off. You have the big Gilmore case tomorrow and I want to make sure everything's set for that. And you left the files on my desk were you here this weekend?" Serena asked as she eyed him and tried to look into his office for the telltale food wrappers that would no doubt be in there.
"It's my firm; I can come in on the weekends if I want. And when I was talking to Raye about professionalism on Friday, it was about….. Other things." Jake answered lamely, "And I'm going to hold you to taking next Monday off. I'm even going to tell Mina about it so that you'll have to stay home. I swear you work too much." Jake muttered the last part as he turned around and went back into his office.
"Ok. I'll have the files pulled for the meetings this afternoon within the next hour. I'll respond to the e-mails and phone calls and set up appointments as needed. Then I'm off to lunch with Amy, Mina and Lita. I'm going to guess Raye is going to meet you for lunch today?" Serena began to rattle off the things that needed to be done.
"Actually, I think she wants to go with you guys to lunch. I'm on my own today." Jake answered from the depths of his office.
"Right; since it's our girls' lunch I'm betting I'll be seeing Max, Zach, and Nathan." Serena laughed as she turned to look into the office to see Jake look away quickly.
"Well, we, uh, since you guys. It's a good thing you're not a lawyer cross examining me!" Jake snapped, "And don't look so smug. We like that you girls are all friends and all, but when you get together we feel left out and we also worry that you're planning to do something evil to us so we're just making battle plans." Jake joked as Serena turned back to log into the e-mail accounts.
"Mm-hmm. I wonder what we're going to talk about at lunch now." Serena teased.
"Oh, probably your new boyfriend." A male voice commented from the door that lead out to the outer hallway of the building.
"I was wondering when you'd show Nate." Jake said from the office.
"What?!" Serena nearly shrieked as the firm partner and her other boss.
"You heard me. Lita called yesterday to tell me all about your date and how you had stars in your eyes all Saturday night." Nate said as he walked past her desk with a smirk on his face.
"Great. I knew there was a reason having Lita move in with me after the break-up was a bad idea." Serena muttered as she typed furiously.
"Ok, we all know that's not true." Nate said as he came to sit on the edge of her desk, "It's good that Lita's there and we all like that. We never wanted you to be alone after the break-up. Especially with a one year old. The postpartum and being alone for the first time in 5 years wouldn't have been a good combination." Nate reminded her.
"I know, I know. I just wish she didn't tell you." Serena grumbled, "And I hate that you're right. We are going to talk about Darien." She added.
"Darien?" Jake asked from his office as he stood from his desk.
"Yeah, Darien Chiba; or rather Endymion Chiba. Though he's not my boyfriend. We've only had one date." Serena pointed out as she read on e-mail.
"Right. Uh, Sere, you didn't meet Raye till after we were married, huh?" Jake asked.
"Well, I knew her though not very well while we were all in college. We might have had a class together. Why?" Serena asked as she looked up from the computer screen.
"Raye's maiden name is Chiba. She's Darien's sister." Jake told her slowly.
"You're having a baby! And you didn't tell me!" Serena said suddenly, remembering that Darien had announced that he was going to be an uncle.
"Ok, that was not what I was expecting you to say." Jake mumbled as he took in Serena's anger, "And I was going to tell you today. Raye just happened to tell me Friday…. After you had left……after we had our talk about professionalism in the office." Jake mumbled the last part.
"From what I believe, you were the one talking and Raye wasn't listening." Nate commented as he winked at Serena.
"Ok, I so don't need to know what goes on in there. And for the record, I'm calling a cleaning place to have the office cleaned." Serena noted as she turned to look at Jake, "What were you expecting me to say?" She then asked Jake.
"I don't know. Why didn't I warn you that was who the girls were setting you up with or something along those lines." Jake said as he ran a hand through his brown hair.
"Well, it seemed you had no clue on who they were setting me up with when you asked to confirm who I had seen and all. Anyways, I happen to know that the girls have kept this pretty close to the chest and really haven't told anyone. Sure they said that they were setting me up, but they never hinted at who they were setting me up with." Serena pointed out, "Now, I believe you guys have a conference call to make and I have some e-mails to respond to and files to pull." Serena said as she shooed them into Jake's office.
"And Nate, I wouldn't touch Jake's desk." Serena smiled as Jake shook his head.
"We didn't do it on the desk!" Jake commented.
"Fine, don't sit on the sofa!" Serena yelled through a crack in the door before she shut it firmly before Jake could comment, but not before she heard Nate laugh.
While Jake and Nate worked in the office, Serena got the peace she needed to get her work done. She responded to the e-mails and did all the filing. Before Serena knew it, it was 11:45 and she needed to take off to get to the hospital in time to make it for Amy's lunch break. Serena opened up the office messenger on her computer to let the guys know that she was leaving. After getting a response letting her know that they received their message, Serena pulled out her purse and locked the computer and filing cabinets and headed for the door. As she opened the office door she nearly ran into two men. Both were well built and about the same height of six foot. One had shoulder length blonde hair while the other kept his blonde hair trimmed near her ears.
"Hey Max, Zach; they're in the Jake's office." Serena smiled at them.
"Thanks have a good lunch." Max, the one with shoulder length hair, said as he held the door for her to leave.
"You, too." Serena said as she walked out, leaving the boys to do their lunch while she went with the girls to her own.
Serena quickly drove from the business district to the hospital where she waved to the nurses' station as she walked to Amy's office.
"When are you bringing the baby by again?" one of the nurses asked as Serena neared Amy's door.
"I don't know. Maybe next Monday. You working then Rita?" Serena asked her.
"I'll be here. You know, you could just bring her to the Arcade. I'm sure Andrew would like to see her too." Rita commented as she reviewed a chart.
"Yeah. I know I haven't been in lately. Maybe next Monday, I have the day off." Serena commented to herself, knowing the girls wouldn't mind going there for their weekly lunch. Especially if Rini were to come.
Serena continued to think about plans for the next week as she knocked on Amy's door.
"Come in." Amy called out as Serena opened the door.
"Hey Sere. I'll be ready to go in a few minutes. Just have to finish writing up the notes for this patient.
"Ok, that's fine. Actually, where's Darien's office?" Serena asked, remembering she would leave him her address for tomorrow.
"Make a left outside my office, two doors down." Amy answered as she typed.
"Really, I thought it would be farther down the hall. Wasn't that where the old Chiefs office was?" Serena asked.
"Yeah, but Darien like's being close to the nurses' station in case he's needed. Unlike many of the older Chiefs and others around, Darien cares more about the patients' rather than policy." Amy answered quickly.
"Hmm. Good to know. I'll be right back; I need to give him something." Serena said as she turned to leave Amy's office.
"Ok. I'll be here." Amy smiled at her as she left.
Serena quickly walked out of Amy's office and turned left, went two doors down and knocked on the office door.
"It's open." Darien called from inside.
Smiling at his slightly annoyed but still welcoming tone Serena pushed open the door and saw Darien sitting behind a desk much like Amy's, though his was covered in files and other papers that held the hospital's logo on it.
Looking up, Darien saw who had entered his office and a smile broke out across his face. Rising from his chair he ignored the mountains of paper on his desk and came to meet Serena half way to said desk.
"Hi." Darien said once they came together.
"Hi." Serena smiled up at him, glad to see that she was able to make him smile when it was obvious that wasn't his emotion right before she had come in.
"Is it lunch time already?" Darien asked.
"Yeah, do you not have a clock in here?" Serena asked as she looked around the office.
"I do, but it's on my desk…. Behind the pile of letters I still have to read and sign." Darien frowned at the pile, "I thought I did that." He then muttered as he looked back at his desk.
"Do you want to come to lunch with us?" Serena offered suddenly, knowing she should have okayed it with the girls first.
"Thank you for the offer, but no. I have to get some of this done." Darien smiled at her, "So, tomorrow night, would you like to stay in or go out?" Darien asked.
"Can you cook?" Serena asked.
"Well, yeah. I do live on my own. I can do my own laundry too." Darien smiled at her.
"Mm-hmm. I'll believe that when I see it. But, to be honest, I would like to go out. I do live with Lita and have a home cooked meal pretty much every day. Not having to do the dishes would be fantastic tomorrow." Serena answered with a shake of her head at his comment.
"Out we will go then." Darien said as he went to his desk to get a pen and paper for her to write her address down for him, "I'll see you tomorrow, then." Darien smiled as Serena handed him the paper back.
"Tomorrow. Try to have a good day." Serena said as she turned to leave Darien to his work.
"I'll try. Have a good lunch and make sure Amy doesn't come back until she's had her full hour lunch." Darien said as Serena left.
"Will do." Serena smiled at him over her shoulder and shut the door behind her and headed back to Amy's office.
"Ready to go?" Amy asked.
"Yup, and I am under orders from Darien to make sure you take a whole hour for lunch." Serena smiled at Amy.
"I knew he would do that. Let's go." Amy sighed as she shook her head.
2222
It didn't take long for Serena and Amy to meet up with Lita, Mina and Raye at Lunar Café only a couple of blocks from the hospital. Once seated at a table and orders taken the girls began to chat as if they hadn't had lunch together in months rather than just a week ago. It had become a regular thing, every Monday they would get together for lunch to talk about their lives since they had all agreed that they had grown apart since their college years. And after Serena's pregnancy and break-up with Danny, everyone knew the relationship she had with the girls kept her going.
"So, how was dinner?" Mina asked, cutting to the chase.
"It was good. We went to Sakura's. Ate, talked, and said good bye. Then I went home and consoled Rini after her bad dream." Serena answered vaguely.
"Oh come on Sere, give us the goods." Raye teased as she took a sip of her soda.
"Well, as it turns out Darien's going to be an uncle." Serena said as she narrowed her eyes on Raye.
"What?" Lita asked as she looked between Raye and Serena.
"I was going to tell you guys…. After we heard about your date with my brother." Raye muttered, "I'm pregnant. Found out Friday morning. I'm, uh, due November/December."
"How did Jake take it?" Amy asked.
"Well, he's excited. He doesn't care if it's a boy or girl because he's so excited to be a father in general. And I know he won't kill them because he's so good with Rini." Raye smiled as she absently rubbed her stomach.
"Congratulations." Mina smiled at her as the rest of the girls patted Raye.
"Since we're on the topic, Sere would you be Godmother? I mean, it's just Jake wants Darien as Godfather and I couldn't decide between all of you and he pointed out that you have Rini and that you know what it's like to have a child and we're going to need your help." Raye began to ramble on.
"I'd love to be Godmother." Serena answered Raye quickly.
"And we understand why you want to choose her." Amy piped in with a kind smile.
"Yeah, that and we're basically already Godmother to Rini, even if it's just Mina on paper. I'm sure we're all going to spoil your little one like we do her." Lita announced, everyone knowing it's true.
"So, back to our original topic; what else happen?" Mina pressed Serena.
"We had dinner and talked. I think he wanted to walk me to his car, but there were reporters waiting for him outside, so we parted in the restaurant. He took off and then I did a few minutes later." Serena explained nonchalantly.
"What else happen Saturday night?" Lita asked, a knowing look on her face as she looked at Serena.
"Well, he wanted me to call him when I got home, to make sure I made it there ok." Serena added as she gave Lita a death glare.
"Of course he would. I mean, he couldn't walk you to your car and that must have been tough for him. He barely lets me leave his apartment alone if it's sunset out." Raye sighed at her brother's protective streak that drove her crazy.
"What else?" Lita kept pressing, ignoring the death glare.
"We're going to have dinner tomorrow night. I'm going to tell him about Rini." Serena answered quickly then held her breath for the reaction.
"Really!?" Mina nearly screamed, bringing the level of her voice down at the last moment to not draw too much attention to them.
"Yes. Do you think it's a good idea to tell him about Rini now? I mean, we've only had one date." Serena asked, though she already knew she would tell him regardless.
"You need to tell him, Sere. He'll understand." Raye said, promise in her voice.
"I really hope so Raye. I'm going on blind faith that he will. I really like him. And though it's been eight months since Danny and I have broken up, I don't think I can handle another break up right now." Serena said softly, showing her friends how much she liked Darien and how scared she really was.
AN: Hope you liked the new chapter. I'm hoping I can keep updating every few weeks, but it's probably highly unlikely. School has started and most of the reading is already kicking my butt. Also, I've rated this story 'M' for what's going to come up in the next few chapters; I know nothing much has happened yet that makes this 'M', but yeah, better safe than sorry.
Starrynight2010